Up, Up and Away!

Ethan got a really cool Elmo kite courtesy of his Daddy's trip to Wal-Mart a few weeks ago. He had a blast flying it! He actually did better than I did. Here are a couple of shots.

What happens when you tell 3 monkeys to smile!

Motivation

Heather has really gotten my booty in gear. I'm really having to watch what I eat and I'm walking like crazy. I shouldn't have gotten lazy in the first place... Just thought I would check in to say that I'm doing fairly well this week and I hope to see a loss this week since I haven't had one in so long. Happy hump day!

New Challenge

I just got back from my friend Heather's yard sale. I always leave with more than I intend. I enjoy spending a little time with her and her friend, Jamie. Anyways, the point of this post. As you know, I quit WW last month after Ronnie got laid off. I just couldn't justify spending money to track what I ate and when I excercised. I was doing really well though. After I stopped tracking I got way off course. Last week when I spoke with Heather she mentioned that she was on WW again. Today we gave ourselves a new challenge. We're going to be down to a size 14 this summer. This should be an easily obtainable goal for each of us. We'll see how it goes.

Fun Day

Yesterday was Fun Day at NM. I was really excited. Can you sense the sarcasm? The kids were crazy. I was crazy. I didn't want to be there, but we can't take anymore days this year. At 12:45 I dutifully went out to the baseball field with Amy to man the obstacle course. Everything was fine until the principal told a group of senior boys that they could launch the 200+ water balloons they filled last night and hauled to school in coolers. A couple teachers and I stood around as targets. They got one. They got her again. And again. They came close to the other, but they never hit me. Whew...I didn't really want to be wet all afternoon anyways, but it was fun teasing them. All the balloons were gone and a few of us were standing around laughing and talking when I heard my name being called. It was the entire group of water balloon boys. They were asking me if I thought I was good since I didn't get hit. I teased back that they needed better aim. So on and so forth. They then showed me inside the cooler. Half full of water. Before I knew what was happening two guys had grabbed each of my arms. I tried to run. I screamed. I stopped so they wouldn't rip my shirt off of me. I would never have gotten away anyways. They dumped the whole thing over my head. I was a good sport. We all laughed and joked for a little while. There was no reason to get mad. They were just having a good time.

Excited

Ronnie and I were going to go on a mini vacation to celebrate our anniversary this weekend, but just couldn't bear the thought of leaving Ethan home. He has so much fun when we go places and I would have been miserable thinking about him the whole time. Finally we decided to take a day trip to the mountains, take Ethan to Tweetsie and have some fun on the train. Our plans changed when Ronnie went to check out the Tweetsie website. We discovered that Thomas the Train is going to be there next month! Ethan absolutely loves Thomas! We changed all of our plans and booked a campsite and bought reserved tickets to see Thomas the second weekend in June. So in three weeks TV will come to life for our little man. Ronnie is already picking on me because he thinks that I am more excited than Ethan would be if he knew what was going on. My response - "How could you not be excited? It's THOMAS!"

On another Ethan note. His new fave food is "'mater jelly." He was eating a biscuit the other night and told his mamaw that he wanted ketchup. She thought he was crazy, but he knew what he wanted. He was eating his ketchup biscuit when papaw started calling it 'mater jelly and the name has stuck. Tasty.

Nothing much going on here

The title says it all. There's not reall a lot going on around here. I guess I'll share a few random thoughts anyways.
-Ronnie still doesn't have a job. His qualifications don't seem to match the specifications of the employers with which he applies.
-I'm tired of school. I'm so ready to be out!
-I'm getting excited about our trip to Costa Rica, but I'm getting nervous! Just me with 7 teenagers in a foreign country? Scary!
-Prom is Saturday so we had our annual scare-the-you-know-what-out-of-'em assmebly today. I thought it couldn't be worse than last year when they acted out a wreck scene with our actual students. WRONG! They had a highway patrolman come in today with some grusome pictures. I don't find death amusing in the least and for it to be up close and in our faces today was pretty ugly. I hope that it got the kids to thinking anyways.
-I saw a fawn on the way he home. He was so cute with big ears and little white spots. Just a little reminder that God is still in control and will send small things to cheer us up when we least expect it.
-When I got home Ronnie went back with me to see if the little guy was still there. I was worried that he may have gotten separated from his mother. He was already gone.
-Ethan is growing like crazy! It seems like he learns something new everyday. And he is always doing something to make us laugh.
-I read Josh's blog and he posted links to all of us that have written about Jenni. I still think about her often. Josh, I still pray for you to have strength. If you need me, let me know.
-I guess that's all for now. God Bless.

Mother's Day Cards

I finally got to make some cards! These are for some ladies from Ethan.

ZOO 2009

Yesterday we went to the zoo with the church youth group. Everyone had a great time even though we wore ourselves out by the end of the day. Here are some pictures from the adventure.

On an egg...


The polar bear would dive underwater...


Then rise up in front of the kids at the window...

and POP out of the water!

After we drew on the wall...

Hanging on with all his might...Ronnie did let go!!!


Are the wolves in here?

Me and my daddy!

Best buds!

Tired at the end of the day.

Farmer Kidd

On Thursday Ronnie dressed Ethan in overalls and he actually wore them all day. Then when I got home he had straw on his truck that he hadn't used yet. He told me that it was a perfect picture opportunity. When he says something like that I usually listen because it means that he actually wants to help get some good poses of the little man. These are a few that we got. Enjoy!

Mother's Day

This is going to be my third mother's day so I thought I would share a few thoughts about life with my 2-year-old.

First I must say that I have enjoyed every day of the past 3 years since I found out Ethan was on his way. He has always been a wonderful little person -- I couldn't have asked for a better little boy.

I'll be the first to admit that some days he gets on my nerves. Maybe he doesn't want to play with his toys while I'm doing something or maybe he's eating the tires off his tractors. Sometimes he's in a bad mood...maybe from a lack of a nap or because he really wants juice or milk right now or maybe he's just had one of those days. Here lately he gets upset at something and says "I can't do it!" or my personal favorite is when he throws his hands in the air and proclaims "I can't do this anymore!" Gee...wonder where he gets that from!

Some days he makes me laugh. Like last week when he used the handle of a jumprope as a microphone while he danced and sang like a lunatic. (Note he did not utter a sound when he had the mic at church the Sunday before.) Or like when he gets excited about something and starts telling us about it...so fast and full of words we don't know half the story. All we have to do is ask "What?" and we get the whole thing again. Lately he's decided he likes to count...all the time... He's pretty smart. He says them the EXACT same way everytime. 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10!!! Ok, maybe he does skip a few, but they're all in order. I finally tried to teach him a little Spanish. Since he obviously loves numbers I thought I would start there. He did really well...copied my sounds perfectly until we got to 7. I said "siete," he looked at me and my seven fingers. I said "siete" again. He looked at me very curiously. One more time I tried "siete." His face lit up, he held a finger up in the air and exclaimed "SEVEN!"

As you can tell from this post I laugh a lot more than not. He has been a ray of sunshine in our lives and I wouldn't change a thing about him. So I hope you all have a very happy day on Sunday and remember to always enjoy the good in your child(ren).

I love you, Munchkin!

Ethan is ready!

Today we were driving on a road near where our new house is. Ethan asked me and his Daddy "Where's my house?" Ronnie pointed and told him the general direction and Ethan told him he was wrong. Ronnie replied that it was "through the woods." When we asked if he wanted to go to the house he said he did, so we went. On the way over I talked with him and asked him if he was going to sleep in his room in his big boy bed when we moved and told me that he would. When we turned around to leave the house Ethan started crying and saying he didn't want to leave. When we asked what he wanted to do he said he wanted to go in and sleep in his bed. He's ready for his new house and so are we.

It's me again

Almost another week has gone by again. I'm getting pretty slack at this.

Our house is getting closer to being done. The septic system has been completed. Thanks to Donald and Terry...my new buddies! I think I annoy them more than anything, but at least they've been keeping Ronnie busy with some pro-bono work. The well is being worked on. So far we are at 540 feet deep!!! Yeah...that's deep! Everytime I think about it I see dollar signs roll through my head. I keep telling Ronnie that the deeper the well goes, the smaller my porch gets. Pretty soon I'll be stuck using a step ladder for the next 30 years. Just kidding...unless we get a really nice inspector. The HVAC guys came by to install the heat pump (nothing stops a Trane :)) and complete the duct work. Also, the septic guys filled in the dirt around the house and leveled it off some. They also took a load of dirt from the bank at the road so that's getting flatter. I told Ronnie they better be done with that soon so that I can plant my flowers next week. I ordered several ground cover plants and expect to get them this week.

Enough of that. Ronnie still has no job, but he did go for an interview on Thursday. He goes for a second one soon. Pray that it's a good job (we're not really sure what it is) and that he gets it if it is. In the meantime he has become quite good at getting odd jobs around here. Last week he cut trees 3 days. Then this week he worked with the septic guys 3 days. Today he helped a man build pallets for most of the day. I'm glad that he knows how to do so many things or can learn quickly and that he gets along with and is able to talk to so many people. He's my people person.

Only 26 more days of school...with students that is. And 4 of those are exams. I can't wait for it to be over! I also can't wait to go to Costa Rica...it's going to be so much fun!!!

I'm getting tired and have probably rambled too long. I've been going all day...shopping with Mama, Ethan and Bryson, then the Spaghetti Supper at church...it's time to snuggle and go to bed. Goodnight!